


By The Tree That Weeps With Me

by BrenIsntHome (NicoGreyjoy)



Series: Widomauk [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Grief/Mourning, Loss, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 10:28:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29187810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NicoGreyjoy/pseuds/BrenIsntHome
Summary: But Mollymauk is not sleeping. He is not going to wake up. This isn't some elaborate scheme or prank they came up to fool the guards that will have Molly leaping up and laughing with glee as they escape. There will be no more days like the one they had in Zadash because Mollymauk is dead and Caleb has to put him in the cold ground and leave him there.
Relationships: Mollymauk Tealeaf/Caleb Widogast
Series: Widomauk [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2143833
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	By The Tree That Weeps With Me

**Author's Note:**

> New fandom, new angst :') 
> 
> Song: O Willow Waly by The Innocents  
> (Listen to the cover by Ashley Serena on Youtube if you want to hear what I was listening to while writing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJVlDUppvls)

_We lay my love and I beneath the weeping willow_

_But now alone I lie and weep beside the tree_

The ground is frozen, and it takes some time to dig a hole that is deep enough. Caleb's hands are red, both from the cold air and the effort. He doesn't feel it, just stares into the dark space they created in the earth. He doesn't feel the uneven ground digging into his knees or the cold, wet melting slow seeping into his thin pants. Just a deep sense of dread as he continues to gaze into the still empty space. 

Mollymauk doesn't like dark, enclosed spaces. He likes them even less when there's dirt involved. He says it feels too much like-

_A grave._

Caleb feels a hysterical laugh bubbling up inside of him. Of course it will feel like a grave, that is what this is. And Mollymauk will not be able to feel anything because this grave is for him. They dug this grave because Mollymauk is gone and they have to put him in there and leave him here. 

Because he is gone.

_Mollymauk is gone and there is nothing Caleb can do about it._

He hears a sound; an awful, broken, mournful sound coming from somewhere. It takes another few moments for him to realize that the sound is coming from him. Caleb can feel Nott pressing into his side and Beau's hands on his shoulders, squeezing tightly. Beau is whispering something he can't understand but it doesn't matter because words are not going to change the fact that **_he is gone._**

Caleb forces himself to turn his head and a few feet away from them he can see the familiar, gaudy coat that he had teased Molly about so many times. The colorful tattoos that spread out along lavender skin, the scars from all the times the tiefling had drawn his swords, the red staining the white shirt where...where...

_Where the glaive had come down and Caleb could do nothing but watch._

Molly's eyes were not shut when they got to him, they closed them. Nott said now it looks more like he's just sleeping and Gods if only that were true. If he was just sleeping like last day the two of them spent together in Zadash.

_It's just the two of them, sitting beneath the weeping willow and surrounded by grass and wildflowers. Molly reclines on the ground with his head resting on Caleb's lap, practically purring as the wizard runs his fingers through purple curls. Caleb doesn't know when Molly managed to find this spot, but he is thankful for it. After so many days of being surrounded by people, it's refreshing to have some time away._

_Time for the just the two of them in the middle of all the chaos._

_"You have a beautiful voice."_

_Caleb startles out of his thoughts. "Was?"_

_The tiefling chuckles, red eyes staring up at him. "Your voice, darling. Did you know that sometimes when you're relaxed you hum or sing to yourself?"_

_Caleb can feel his cheeks heating up at Molly's words. No, he had not realized that that is what he had been doing. The face he must be making earns another chuckle from Molly and he shifts uncomfortably, looking away from the other man, mumbling an apology._

_"Relax, sweetheart," Molly soothes, taking Caleb's free hand in his and pressing a kiss to his knuckles, "I love your voice. You should sing to me more often."_

_"J-Ja?" he asks, cheeks still on fire but now chancing a glance at the tiefling's face._

_"Ja, bitte," Molly replies. Caleb's face scrunches at Molly's atrocious accent. "Only if you promise to stop sounding like a lost tourist in the Zemni Fields."_

_This earns him a full blown laugh, and Caleb can't help but smile as well. "Deal."_

_The two of them fall back into an easy silence, and Caleb begins playing with Molly's curls again. After a few moments the tiefling begins to relax further, eyes drifting shut under his ministrations. Caleb feels a little self-conscious at first, doing little more than humming a tune. It's the melody of a song he heard his mother sing many a time back in Blumenthal. One of the few songs in Common she was comfortable singing out loud._

_Singing 'O willow waly' by the tree that weeps with me_

_Singing 'O willow waly' till my lover return to me_

But Mollymauk is not sleeping. He is not going to wake up. This isn't some elaborate scheme or prank they came up to fool the guards that will have Molly leaping up and laughing with glee as they escape. There will be no more days like the one they had in Zadash because Mollymauk is dead and Caleb has to put him in the cold ground and leave him there. 

"Where's that stupid tapestry? We should wrap him in that."

"Should we leave a note? I mean he crawled out of a grave once, didn't he?" 

_Just leave me here, too,_ he thinks. _Just leave me here-_

"Caleb?" Nott says gently, squeezing his hand. "We have to.....we have to bury him now. Do you want a minute?" 

He nods mutely, and Nott gives his hand one final squeeze before rising to her feet. Distantly he hears her shuffling Beau and Keg away, and then there is silence. And it is just him and Molly. Caleb can't remember when he moved, but he's kneeling next to his body now. 

It's strange to see him so still. Mollymauk is..... _was...._ always so full of energy, constantly moving and talking. 

Caleb reaches out a shaking hand and touches his cheek. He's cold. Tieflings tend to run hot, but Mollymauk feels so, so cold. 

Wake up, he wants to scream. Wake up wake up _please just wake up please I don't want to do this without you._ Because this isn't funny anymore and doesn't he know they have friends to go rescue and don't have time for games?

_Please, Mollymauk. Just wake up..._

Twenty minutes later they are back on the road. A cross marks the place where Mollymauk lays, and Caleb can still faintly make out the shape of his coat blowing in the cold wind. The coat that Molly would probably never wear again. He would never get a chance to tease him about it again. 

He would never....

_We lay my love and I beneath the weeping willow_

_A broken heart have I. Oh willow I die. Oh willow I die_

_-_

When Caleb saw Lucien for the first time, he didn't know whether to scream, to cry, to rage, to laugh, or some combination of all of the above. Because when he looked at the leader of the Tomb Takers, all he saw was Molly. _His Molly._

But it wasn't. It isn't. 

This person isn't Mollymauk, just someone with his face and his lilt. Just someone who makes Caleb's chest ache like he was one stabbed with the glaive whenever they are near him. Someone who is cold and cruel. A stranger wearing Molly's face. 

_"That was an aberration."_

His Molly is already gone.

Why does it feel like he's losing him for a second time? 

_Singing 'O willow waly' by the tree that weeps with me_

_Singing 'O willow waly' till my lover return to me...._


End file.
